WITH the overnight monsoons so confidently predicted by the weather forecasters failing to materialise Whitchurch travelled hoping to put their title bid back on track after the home defeat by Brockenhurst seven days earlier.

They were without injured Cole Hinchcliffe and Rudi Plummer, but after a well-observed minutes’ silence for league official John Stimpson they made the brighter start.

A run by Danny Phillips ended with the cross being scrambled away before the striker combined with Josh Green, again down the left flank, to provide Ryan Lambert with a shooting chance but the wide man found home keeper Monty George equal to the effort.

Lymington’s James Davis then broke clear only for Brad Snelling in the visitors’ goal to save with his feet.

Jack McCarthy and Jamie Mansell carved out an opening but Phillips’s shot was straight at George and the keeper then tipped a Josh Harfield effort over the bar.

As Whitchurch continued to press Mansell just failed to make full contact with a Lambert corner and George was flat footed as a McCarthy volley from outside the area scraped some paint off the outside of the post.

The home side’s Jake Bockhart tried his luck from distance but was wide before the half ended with George hanging on to a Mansell effort after some clever work by McCarthy.

Lymington started the second half at a furious pace and the visitors rode their luck but Snelling’s handling was confident under pressure.

The defence rode the storm and a Lambert cross shot was only just too high before Whitchurch finally broke the deadlock. Harfield strode into the area, the challenge took feet rather than ball and Green despatched the penalty.

Mansell sent McCarthy away but there were no takers when the cross sailed across the area and with rain falling and conditions slippery underfoot Lymington regained their earlier impetus and Snelling was in action saving free-kicks from both Darren Ritchie and Brad Strickland.

Whitchurch introduced Tom Lockyer and Scott Hassall and the two substitutes combined neatly with Hassall turning a cross only inches the wrong side of the post. The home side were not to be denied however and when the defence only half cleared a cross, Davis’s volley from the edge of the area flew to bring the scores level. The industrious Lockyer sent one effort wide and saw another saved by George before Davis blotted his copybook and saw the afternoon end on an unsatisfactory note for all with a red card, seemingly for foul language.

This was a hard-earned point, but United surrendered their table-topping position with Moneyfields and Petersfield both winning.